Categories: uncategorized
Date: 12 July 2007 00:30:47
Yes I know. Putting unleaded in a diesel tank is a bad idea. Now, if diesel gets into a petrol engine, that's serious, but petrol in a diesel engine is catastrophic.
This morning I went to fill the car up. I picked up the regular diesel pump, but then thought "no, for a change, I'll put Ultimate in and give the car a treat". I don't use Ultimate very often as it's considerably more expensive than regular diesel, but every now and again I use it as it is supposed to have magic powers that clean the engine and allegedy improves performance and fuel consumption. Anyway, I replaced the black diesel nozzle and proceeded to fill the car with BP Ultimate. After a few seconds, I sort of sniffed the air and realised I couldn't smell diesel. I'd picked up the wrong nozzle and was putting Ultimate Unleaded in my tank.
I hadn't put a huge amount in - only about 5 litres into a tank that was already about a third full, but even that amount would be enough to kill the engine. So, I went into the shop bit of the filling station, paid for the small amount of fuel I'd put in and shamefacedly explained what I'd done. The manager very kindly helped me push the car from the pump into one of the parking bays. I also removed the roof sign from the car so as not to advertise to the entire world what an idiot I'd been.
My first response was to call the AA. I'm not actually a member, but as it's a new car, I have automatic membership through "Vauxhall Assistance". However, this is just "roadside assistance" and this doesn't cover stupidity such as putting the wrong fuel in the tank. I was informed that I would have to pay £99 + VAT recovery fee for them to take it to a garage. Hmm... that sounds a bit expensive. My next step was to phone the local Vauxhall dealer who will remain nameless. They quoted me £410 + vat to drain the tank and dispose of the fuel. On speaking to the Boss Man from the school, he said "Well you know what [the local Vauxhall dealer who will remain nameless] are like. They'll have the car for three days, find lots of other things to add on to it and you'll come away with a bill closer to £600". I think I sort of knew this. I also knew that all of this was far more than I could afford.
Well anyway, I phoned a local independent garage in Tooting, Carpenters Garage, and I assure you, if they had a website I'd post a link here. They don't though, but I'd recommend them to anyone in South London who needs work doing on their car. They are a small, family run business and have been around for about forty years. They are reliable, honest, trustworthy and above all, extremely mechanically competent. (Unlike [the local Vauxhall dealer who will remain nameless]). After explaining my predicament, they asked if I'd switched the engine on since this act of stupidity. I assured them that I hadn't, so they said "well, in that case you probably haven't damaged the engine, in which case this'll probably cost around £200"
Wow. That was much cheaper than [the local Vauxhall dealer who will remain nameless] and I said so to which he replied "of course we're cheaper than [the local Vauxhall dealer who will remain nameless]. Everybody knows that [the local Vauxhall dealer who will remain nameless] are a bunch of rip-off merchants"
The next thing to do was to get the car there. I didn't fancy shelling out over £100 to move the car a little more than a mile, so after a bit of phoning around, I found a one man breakdown recovery business based in Brixton who said he'd do it for £30.
The breakdown truck was a bit of a wreck, held together with rust and masking tape, but I didn't care. It was functional and the car went on the back and off we went to carpenters.
On arrival at the garage, the guv'nor gave me the lowdown. The thing about Carpenters, as I've found in the past when I've had dealings with them, is that they will give the worst case scenario and tend to overquote. This is a Good Thing in my opinion, because at least I'm prepared for the worst and if the job turns out to be expensive, I can't complain because they've already quoted me the highest price. In this case though, he pointed out that it was possible that some of the petrol may have found it's way into the engine in which case it would be "Very Serious". This was the worst case scenario, but was unable to give me a figure if this were to be the case. (Expensive though as it would almost certainly have meant fitting a new engine). He stuck to his original quote of £200 dependent on there being no damage to the engine.
After a couple of hours he phoned me. "Well, first the good news. The engine seems fine. We've drained the tank and flushed it through thoroughly. We've stuck some replacement diesel in and taken it for a drive and everything seems fine. Now the even better news - this all comes to £154.15 including VAT which is less than I originally quoted"
So, the car is well again.
People of South London, if you have a sick car, I heartily recommend Carpenters Garage of Bickersteth Road, Tooting, SW17.